Couple Dies in House Fire One Day After Moving In

FORTLEE, N.J. — Two people who’d moved into a northern New Jersey town house a day earlier have died in a fire that started in their kitchen and spread upstairs.

Police say 52-year-old Eliot C. Nisenbaum and 55-year-old Ronald Sandberg were found Saturday night in the second-floor master bedroom of their home in Fort Lee, overlooking the Hudson River.

Firefighters had to break down a door to gain entry to the unit in the gated Kensington Park complex. They tried to resuscitate the victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

Police Chief Thomas Ripoli says there was heavy smoke damage throughout the home but most of the damage was concentrated in the kitchen. He says the fire likely started above a gas stove and was an accident.